Unsaid
by alien09
Summary: Liz startles and then sighs as Tony's fingers spread across her face. She leans into the touch, relishes it. / Starts from 3x01. Eventual Keenler. Multi-chap. Crossover with NCIS.
1. Chapter 1

_People will go on believing that I'm a terrorist._

Liz looks at herself in the mirror and she thinks the person staring back at her is a stranger. She's the most wanted person in America at the moment and the thought turns her stomach, remembering the photos of herself plastered all over the news interposed between pictures of dead bodies.

She stares at her hands and looks at the burn mark on her wrist. Sometimes she looks at her hands and all she can see is red.

Ressler's been put in charge of the task force now and she remembers his face, the set of his jaw as he tells her he will have to be the one to bring her in. To hunt her down.

The thought of Ressler looking at her in disgust makes her close her eyes tight, her hand going to her chest. It feels even worse than finding out Tom wasn't Tom, wasn't the man who she thought he was.

Liz looks down at the box of hair dye and opens it.

When she sees Red stare, catch his breath at her new blonde hair a part of her relaxes because this is something she knows is a part of her – even if its superficial and nonsensical.

'She was blonde. My mother. That picture in your apartment– she was blonde. I look like her, don't I?'

Red nods his head and continues speaking, but Liz doesn't miss the way he continues to glance at her.

* * *

The Troll Farmer – or Bo Chang – looks supremely put out by Red and Liz can't help but feel for him. She's been on the receiving end of Red's pushy nature and for once, she's glad that he's doing this for her.

Liz watches the pretty brunette girl who bears a passing resemblance to her walk out in a police uniform, her eyes going wide as she spots Liz.

"I guess I'm you. Elizabeth Keen, right? Is he here, too? Reddington? Are you with him now? I don't mean to pry, but how does it feel?'

'How does what feel?' Liz asks her cautiously.

'To be a fugitive.'

Liz flinches as the camera flashes.

'_And if you run, what does that look like? If someone's setting you up, you're giving them exactly what they want. You can fight this, but if you've got to do it from inside the system,' Ressler offers and Liz looks at him, eyes wide and breath short. He's offering to fight for her and she can't tell why, because ever since the Deer Hunter he seems like he doesn't want anything to do with her._

_A large part of her wants to put the phone down and go with him._

'_You don't want to fight for me Ressler,' she says instead and is acutely aware of the wail of the sirens._

_Ressler narrows his eyes, opens his mouth._

'_In about 20 seconds, that camera's gonna turn back on. If you're gonna let me go, you've got to do it now, before people see you standing here with me.'_

_He looks at her and for a moment Liz thinks she's going to have to go through him forcefully._

_Ressler steps aside instead and Liz watches him like a hawk as she shuffles past him, placing the phone down on the ground._

'_I never wanted this to happen,' she whispers. 'I never wanted this to happen to you.'_

_She runs._

* * *

'If you catch her, it will. It will matter a great deal. What you know about her, what you feel about her could make all the difference. So, my offer. One blacklister in exchange for your word that you will give her the benefit of every doubt. Can you do that, Donald? Can you give me your word?'

Red's words hit him like a punch to the gut. The vest he has on suddenly feels like its squeezing him too tight. Ressler feels like hands shake and clenches his fist.

'What I _feel _about Keen doesn't matter. She made her choice the minute she ran from me – from the FBI.'

Red chuckles. 'Oh Donald. Always so black and white. Elizabeth is innocent and I thought you, of all people, would be prescient of that fact.'

'Yeah well – Keen's done a lot of things these last few months that makes me wonder whether she's even who I think she is.'

'I wouldn't cast stones Donald,' Red's voice hardens and Ressler presses his lips together. 'Now your word?'

Ressler hates himself for not even hesitating.

'Yes.'

* * *

Ressler recognises the shape of her anywhere, despite the blonde hair.

He barely has the car in park before he's out the door, legs pounding as she heads towards the Russian Embassy.

He wants to scream at her, to take her by the shoulders and tell her not to be so stupid.

To trust him.

Instead he watches, heart sinking down to his stomach, as she climbs the fence and jumps down. The armed guards rush her instantly and he's looking at her through the wire fence. Her blonde hair is in her face and Ressler spares a moment to admire the colour.

'Don't do this Liz. _Please_,' he hisses through his teeth. Her eyes – god _her eyes _– soften and seem to glisten.

'Help! My name is Masha Rostova. I'm a Russian agent. I work for the FSB, and I'm seeking diplomatic immunity.'

He blinks at the name and wants to tell the guards to ease off as they push her into the fence.

'I don't want you to feel my pain anymore,' her words are barely a whisper but he hears them.

He remembers telling her those words outside the garage, when she had looked so small and he had wanted the same feelings that threaten to overwhelm him now to recede so he could think clearly.

'_Don_.'

It's the last thing he hears before they haul her away from him.

He can hear Samar come up behind him.

'Ressler,' she murmurs and he jerks his head as Liz disappears into foreign soil.

'Yeah,' he sighs.

_Benefit of the doubt Liz. Benefit of the doubt._


	2. Chapter 2

Ressler looks at Liz, takes in the glassy eyes and weary hunch to her shoulders.

'I owe you, Keen. You saved my life back at that convoy. Now let me return the favour. Come out before this gets bad.'

Liz stares at him, quirks her lips up.

'Donald, as much fun as it is seeing you reunite with Elizabeth, did you forget that we were in the middle of a hostage situation?' Red says and casually places a gun on the neck of one of the hostages. 'My demands are as follows– One, I want the immediate restoration of power to this building. Two, an armored vehicle to transport us safely and unmolested from this door to a runway of my choosing. Three, bring me Marvin Gerard. You have 90 minutes.'

'That's it?' Ressler asks.

'No, one more thing,' Liz says and Red looks momentarily confused.

Liz licks her lips. 'Bring me Anthony DiNardo.'

_Anthony DiNardo_.

The name spins around in Ressler's mind. He could tell Red wasn't too thrilled with Liz's last demand and he'd seen Red gesticulating a bit more wildly than normal to a semi-stoic Liz through the gaps in the hostages that lined the windows.

'Who is Anthony DiNardo?' Samar asks. 'Why would Liz ask for him?'

'No clue,' Ressler answers, hooking his fingers through his vest. 'I reached out and apparently he's some professor who teaches film.'

Samar shakes her head.

'Sometimes it feels like I don't even know her,' she murmurs and Ressler tries to ignore the truth in her words.

When Anthony DiNardo shows up, Ressler bites the inside of his cheek. The man is taller than him by an inch or two and smiles widely at the hostage situation that's happening in front of him.

'Rousted out of bed, cavity-searched, shackled, transported like livestock? Yes. Briefed? No.' Marvin Gerard's voice echoes in the background.

'Special Agent Donald Ressler,' he introduces himself and Anthony shakes his hand, grip firm.

'Call me Tony. Not going to lie Agent Ressler, I'm a bit confused about why I got hauled out of my lecture theatre to come here.'

'Elizabeth Keen asked for you,' Ressler tells him. Tony blinks.

'Lizzie's in there?' Something flickers behind the other man's eyes and Ressler feels his stomach clench at the clear affection colouring the other guy's voice.

'Gerard is insufferable but he's ready to go in,' Samar interrupts, rolling her eyes as Marvin continues his protestations on the wire being put onto him.

'Wire him up as well. I'll let Reddington and Keen know,' Ressler tells her, ignoring the flirtatious look Tony sends Samar's way.

'Are you wired?' Red asks.

'Of course I'm wired,' who Liz assumes is Marvin Gerard responds, tone raised. 'I told them not to bother but…'

'You must be Anthony. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, despite these trying circumstances,' Red directs Tony's way. Liz eyes her old friend, notes the green eyes that still crinkle at the corners when he smiles. Tony keeps up the pointless small talk Red sends his way, waiting patiently as Red slowly strips and destroys the surveillance equipment the FBI had sent them in with.

'Okay we're good,' Liz nods her head as Red drops the last wire into the jug of water.

'Well Lizzie, I have to say I never envisioned you as a blonde. But I have to say it works,' Tony murmurs and fingers a lock of her hair. Liz is aware of Red eyeing them, the tension in the older man's shoulders as he regards an unknown variable in his plan.

'Red, just talk to Marvin. Tony is _fine_. We talked about this,' Liz responds to that damned head tilt, shoving her hands under her armpits and rocking back on her heels. She misses the man from the booth lunge for her gun, but Tony doesn't.

The man Red had roughed up is now on the ground, Tony's knee on his spine.

'We good?' Tony asks somewhat jovially, smiling as he presses his knee down harder and makes the other man groan in pain.

'Tony,' Liz pleads, grabbing the sleeve of his coat. Tony looks up at her before easing his hold.

'You shut up and stay put, and I might not break your arm the next time. Clear?' Tony tells the other man who nods and mumbles in agreement.

Red looks suitably impressed as he drags Marvin away to the counter. Liz pulls Tony into the kitchen and leans against the stainless steel bench, head in her hands as she sucks in deep cleansing breaths.

'God Lizzie, what the hell happened? I turn on my TV and see your face plastered all over the news, saying you _killed _someone.'

'I didn't do it,' Liz tells him flatly, nostrils flaring.

'I know that. I'm not an idiot.'

Liz startles and then sighs as Tony's fingers spread across her face. She leans into the touch, relishes it.

'I don't know what I'm doing anymore Tony,' her words are harsh and low, and her throat closes up. 'This…all of this. _God_.'

Tony's thumb sweeps across her cheekbone.

'What do you need?'

Liz second-guesses herself, wonders why she thought dragging in another innocent into her fight was a good idea.

'Elizabeth, you were there for me when I needed you,' Tony holds her stare. 'Tell me why you called me here.'

Liz sighs.

'Have you ever heard of The Fulcrum?'


End file.
